


Critical role, The Daemon Version

by DarkHorseAsh



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:21:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22117060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHorseAsh/pseuds/DarkHorseAsh
Summary: In which Vox Machina's members have never been alone.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 82





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I can't kick an idea out of my head lol. This first chapter is just intros, but the second should be up Quickly knowing me.

Vax is always surprised that his daemon settled first. Tari had changed almost constantly throughout his life; one moment a bird, then a lion, then a weasel, then a goat, all in the span of about 5 hours. Tari and Trinket never settled when they lived with their father, and the twins never got used to the sneers and insults that came their way because of that fact. But they’d only been away from Syngorn for a matter of weeks when he woke up one morning, and Tari was in the same form she’d been in the night before. 

“Tari?” He questioned, brushing one hand through the thick black fur, and even before she opened her mouth, he knew. “Look at us, beating Vex at something.” The black-furred jaguar gave a loud purr of agreement, tongue rasping against the back of his hand as Vax grinned wickedly. 

It would take over another year for Trinket to settle. He stayed in forms longer than Tari ever had, but every few days he was different. Vex’s frustration at this was clear; most daemons were settled by about 13 or 14, and she was rapidly nearing 18 with an unsettled daemon. She loved Trinket in every form but watching her brother and Vari work side-by-side made her a little envious. Vari had become Vax’s shadow more or less, creeping through the dark corners of streets to help her twin take out threats while Trinket, still nervous and unsettled, rarely liked to be close when they fought.

It came to ahead late one night. She and Vax had been working a job, trying to catch some thieves, and Vex had made a...slight tactical error. She’d turned left into an alley as her brother, who had apparently remembered the map correctly, turned right. Vex’s turn had brought her straight into the arms of two thieves, and her precious bow had been nearly useless close-range. A dagger had been swinging towards her throat when Trinket moved, fur and motion as he flew into the attackers, sending them flying. “Get away from her!” He roared, and Vex took the time to pull another arrow and fire.

By the time Vax reached them, Vex was pulling herself up, leaning against the side of her now-massive daemon. Vax froze, Tari nearly vanishing into the shadows behind him as he stared. “Damn, you had to beat me.” He teased, one hand dropping to scritch Tari’s ears as she gave an annoyed little “But you’d never be able to hide with a bear!” As Vex sent a positively smug smile at her twin brother.

Scanlan had always been special, at least that’s what his mother had said. His daemon had settled when he was young, young enough that the little gnome didn’t really remember a time before Celeste was a parrot. As a child, they’d sing together, the brightly-colored daemon mimicking his tone almost perfectly. When they got older, she’d perch on his shoulders and flap and swear loudly at anyone who looked like a potential danger, which was most people. 

Unlike everyone he grew up with, he didn’t really care about his daemon being small and unassuming. He didn’t want a huge daemon who scared people away, because that was bad for business. Celeste was like him; loud, obnoxious, maybe just a little too much, but beautiful. She was small enough to perch on his shoulder and nibble on his ear, and that was just the way he liked her. 

Grog never had it easy. He grew up in a clan of big daemons; lions, rhinos, elephants, alligators. The smallest daemon he’d ever even seen was a still-huge mastiff with sharp teeth and vicious eyes. The herd wasn’t kind to their own daemons, using them as weapons. Most slept yards away, kept watch through the night even as their people slumbered, fought for very little by way of recognition or being listened to. 

He was fourteen when a little male gnome was brought into the camp. He was fourteen when he hurtled himself over the tiny figure and let his own too small, too weak, too scrawny form take the blows. He was fourteen, a small, for a goliath, fourteen when he ran and ran and ran. He could feel teeth in his sleeve when he stumbled and fell, his daemon’s shape a blur at his side as he full-on sprinted, world spinning as he fell to his knees, world a dizzying mix of color as he heard a worried voice speak.

He woke up on a too-small bed, with a wet nose touching his forehead. The goliath jerked awake, staring down at the daemon who was sitting on the bed before him. “Hey there.” The goliath rumbled, and the dog gave an eager tail wag. “Hi! You are awake.” Gee woofed happily licking at the bigger figure’s ears. Grog just stared down at the dog, so much smaller than what he’d thought, even though it was still a decent-sized creature, and did his best to smile back. 

When Niji had first settled, Pike had been surprised. People always said that you could tell who someone was by what their daemon looked like; birds were for people who’d travel far, bigger animals like dogs and bears were typically for rough-and-tumble people, who needed someone to fight alongside them, reptiles tended to be for...morally questionable people, etc. Pike had never been sure how much of it was true, but when she looked at Niji, fluffy sparrow body and bright eyes, she couldn’t help but be worried about it.

Niji never seemed bothered. “If we’re meant to go, we’ll go.” She’d tell pike, nibbling on the gnome’s ear. “But we like it here, we don’t have to leave just cause I’ve got wings.” And then she’d do loop-da-loops around the ceiling until Pike burst into uncontrollable laughter. “You’re right, Niji, we’ve got this.” She agreed, staring up at the ceiling. “We’ve got this.” 

Anastasia had been Percy’s only friend for a long time. He wasn’t even sure if you could count your daemon as a friend, could you be friends with part of your soul? He hoped so. His family, like most royals ones, had tradition; most daemons in his family settled as hunting dogs or wolves or messenger-type birds. He’d always been a little proud of the fact that he and Anastasia were different.

Anastasia settled when he was eleven, young for it but not that young. Anastasia sat before him, eyes bright and eager. “I think I like you like this,” Percy admits, and the chimp gives what he thinks is meant to be a smile. “I can help build in the shop now.” the daemon agreed, scrambling across the room to perch on a table and pass Percy tools before he’d even opened his mouth for them. At night, the daemon would sit by the headboard and groom his hair, until her boy finally slept. 

Sylric never settled. Keyleth grew up, ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, nineteen years old, and her daemon still never held his form. She didn’t mind; in many ways, Sylric was like her. She changed forms and so did Sylric and it worked. Sometimes, her daemon would shift into whatever she was; they’d run together as wolves or climb trees as squirrels. But as Keyleth grew up, she watched everyone else’s daemon settle. Her father told her not to worry, it would happen when it was meant to happen, but as the years went on, it got hard to not resent Sylric for not just settling already. 

The day she left, Sylric was a falcon. He perched on her shoulder as she slowly began a journey she was terrified she’d never come back from, each step careful and precise. Sylric would swoop a few feet away, but Keyleth had never been one of those people who could send their daemon far without feeling it, so he spent most of the time on her shoulder or at her side. “We’re gonna be fine.” He said calmly, and Keyleth did her best to believe him. “We’re gonna be fine.”


	2. First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A family meets for the first time, and Vax is surprised more than once.

Vax isn’t sure what to think of the red-haired half-elf and her daemon. Tari seems unconvinced, stalking about behind him and muttering “She’s too friendly!” Vax is inclined to agree, one hand trailing over the leopard’s mud-splattered fur; Tari was  _ not  _ enjoying the swamp. Trinket and Vex, who were currently up a tree, seemed to agree; he could hear the bear’s growls. Keyleth didn’t seem to mind, focused entirely on petting Sylric’s fur as the squirrel perched on her hand. “You’re big.” He declared, blinking at Tari. Tari snorted, pawing at the ground and studying the rodent with narrowed eyes. “You’re small.” 

The first night they camped out together, Vax flopped over Trinket’s back and rubbed his ears as Tari rubbed up against Vex’s hands, begging for pets. It wasn’t until Vax heard Keyleth’s sharp inhale that he realized this might’ve been a mistake; he’d almost forgotten the social stigma around touching other people’s daemons. He and Vex had always been tactile, and it was no different with their demons; Tari would forever insist that Vex was better at finding the right spots to scritch her, and Trinket  _ loved  _ it when Vax sat on his back and scratched his shoulders. 

Keyleth was hunched across the clearing, currently-a-squirrel Sylric perched on her knees. Her eyes were wide as she watched the nearly-identical people across the room  _ touching  _ each other’s daemons. They weren’t even just touching, they were full-on cuddling, and Keyleth didn’t understand what to do with that. Sylric nudged his little head into her hand in an effort to be soothing and the half-elven girl sighed, curling up on her side with the squirrel nestling into her chest. 

They met Scanlan and Grog two days later. The little gnome seemed out of place at the goliath’s side, his bird just as spirited as him as she flittered about the trees above their heads, calling out swears  _ loudly  _ as Scanlan snickered with pride. The goliath was intimidating even to the twins, but his daemon, Gee, seemed his complete opposite; the bluish-grey dog daemon with torn ears and a face of old scars effectively hid behind Grog as they set off, sending skittish looks at Tari and Trinket the whole way. 

The daemons got used to each other faster than the people did. Celeste would perch on ears and heads and squawk obnoxiously in ears, and Gee took to wrestling and playing with Tari. The twins were still openly affectionate with each other’s daemons; and Grog, Scanlan, and Pike slowly got used to seeing the two tangled up with both daemons pretty much every day. Scanlan had watched with wide eyes the first time he’d seen Vax use Trinket to climb up onto a branch or Tari shove her head into Vex’s lap begging for pets. Grog had hidden his surprise slightly better, but he’d still rolled over to quietly ask the gnome if that was  _ normal,  _ to which Scanlan had rapidly shaken his head. 

The people, slowly, grew closer, too. Vax stopped waiting for one of them to stab a dagger through his throat, and Vex slowly stopped hoarding everything she and her brother had. Scanlan had trusted them from the moment he met them all for whatever reason, and he and Celeste just got more and more ridiculous as the five slowly started to gain a small bit of renown in Stilben. Keyleth clearly was attached to her new family, telling them all animatedly about her home and her family. 

Pike fit in from the moment they met her. She joked with Scanlan and arm wrestled her brother Grog and smiled at the twins. Even Vex and Vax, who were masters of being distrustful of everyone, couldn’t help but like the little gnome and her tiny familiar. The sparrow, Niji, was small and looked very soft, not that any of them would have proof, and was a master of flying about to get information before returning, little brown eyes bright with delight as she relayed what she had learned. Her and Celeste bonded quickly as the only two with wings, and the tiny brown bird could often be seen perched on a tree side-by-side with the blue-throated macaw. 

They left Stilben together, finally, nine months later. They’d just gotten Grog back, and none of them were eager to return to their little fishing town, and so they’d set off for something bigger and more fun. They’d been skirting near a city, which they didn’t even know the name of, when...something had happened.

Vax had been sneaking through the shadows, stalking ahead of the others to scout out the ruins when he felt two pairs of hands grasp his arms. He yelped, twisting and thrashing as he was dragged towards a small, stand-alone building, Tari pressed near his legs. One of the men kicked the animal’s side and he lost time for long moments, slowly blinking back into consciousness curled up in a ball gasping on a hard stone floor. Tari was stretched out against his back, big tongue lapping up and down rhythmically over his face, though she paused when he shuttered and opened his eyes. 

“Are you alright?” The cat inquired, and Vax gave a shaky nod, still feeling too off-balance from the figure touching Tari to speak and ignoring the searing agony that was his right arm. He leaned back against the wall, letting the leopard put most of it's body in his lap and licking his ears again. “There is someone in the other cell.” Vax went upright, hands stilling against Tari’s back. “What?” 

The figure in the other cell was limp. On first inspection, Vax didn’t see a daemon, but when his eyes focused he spotted a pile of black fur in the other corner. The figure didn’t even move, but the Daemon seemed to sense his approach, and a wide pair of brown eyes focused on his face as the pile of fur rose up into a frail chimpanzee.

“Hello.” Vax said awkwardly, leaning against the bars as the chimp took limping steps towards him, not putting it’s right hand or leg on the ground for more than a moment. “Are you alright?” The chimp gave a slight dip of it’s head, giving a murmured “Help us.” Vax decided in that moment that he was going to  _ kill  _ whoever had hurt this daemon; it was clear from the damage written into the black-furred creature’s skin that they’d attacked the daemon. Hurting someone’s daemon was considered the highest level of evil, because it was literally cutting into someone’s soul, so Vax wasn’t super surprised that the figure in the far corner was softly crying and not moving. 

“You got a name?” Vax questioned softly. The chimp hesitated, pausing for a moment as she drew in a few laboured breaths. “Anastasia. I am Anastasia.” The daemon’s voice was rough and shaky as she settled down in the corner up against the bars, one human-esque hand loosely grasping the bars. “Hi Anastasia. I’m Vax. It’s very nice to meet you.” 

The chimp was shivering in pain, one long arm resting against her knees. Vax had seen his own daemon injured before; tari had suffered numerous minor wounds over the years, but  _ nothing  _ like this. Even the small wounds to Tari had felt like he was being stabbed with a red hot blade in his  _ soul,  _ and Vax felt an unexpected pang of sympathy for the trembling boy and the unusually-settled daemon. 

“Anastasia?” Vax asked softly, what felt like at least an hour later. The chimp’s dark eyes slowly met his, and he grimaced. “Is he completely out?” She gave a small nod, and Vax slowly reached a hand through the bars. “Doubt he’d feel it at this point, anyway, with that many injuries. My sister and my friends will be here soon but until then...if you want, I mean.” The dark eyes seemed to focus on his face for a moment, and then Vax felt one of the large hands reach out and grasp his.

Vax dozed off like that, leopard on one side and chimp hand clinging to his. The daemon and her person were clearly incredibly weak, because Vax barely shivered when his hand touched the unfamiliar daemon. He stirred as a clang drew his attention to the door, where he saw what was just about the worst thing he’d ever seen.

Two guards had somehow grasped the white-haired boy’s shoulders and were dragging him from his cell. The boy gave a frantic sort of whine as Anastasia hobbled after him, only to be shoved back into the cell. She  _ screeched,  _ slamming at the bars, but was entirely unable to get herself out. “Anastasia” Vax called worriedly, concerned that the daemon was only going to hurt herself worse. “Anastasia, come here, it’s ok.” Anastasia gave another screech, and Vax pressed a little into Tari’s side, watching helplessly as the chimp screeched and howled. 

Vax had a serious headache by the time the boy returned. Anastasia scrambled away from the bars, left hand clutching the wall as the figure was tossed to the floor. She hobbled forward, grasping the man into her left arm and hauling him back to their corner, the two curled up together. He was beginning to think he’d have to get out of here himself, broken arm and all, when he heard a soft thud and spotted a pair of glittering eyes in the piercing darkness. 

“Keyleth?” The red-haired half elf gave a soft little “Uh huh!” As she scrambled awkwardly towards the bars. “Yes hi it’s me I’m gonna get you out.” Vax watched as the girl fumbled with some lockpicks and started to work, and the moment he heard a click, he was out the door embracing her with his left arm. “Thank you.” Tari trailed a few steps behind, adding her own “Thanks. We thought we’d be stuck here.” Vax snags the lockpicks in one hand and turns to the cell next to him, calling out softly, “Anastasia? C’mon Anastasia, we’re gonna get him out of here.” 

Anastasia didn’t move, but she let Vax into the cell. He knelt, reaching a hand out and after a few long moments, he felt fingers slowly close on his. He helped the chimp to the door, before holding her hand out to a wide-eyed Keyleth, who he just now noticed had Sylric, a mouse today, perched on her shoulder. “Anastasia, I’m going to get...uh…”He paused, realizing he’d never even asked the boy’s name, but the chimp seemed to understand. “Percival.” “I’m going to go get Percival, Kiki here is gonna help you.” Keyleth made a soft, alarmed sound as the chimp carefully lifted up her left arm to take the girl’s.

Keyleth slowly reached out and grasped the hand, forcing down a noise at the feeling of it. The chimp at her side was giving a wide-eyed, nervous look, and Keyleth tried her best to man’s hold. “C’mon Keyleth, let’s get out of here.”

They limp out side by side. His sister and Grog rush forward, and he gladly lets Grog take the boy, Percival, and reaches back down to grasp Anastasia’s hand from Keyleth, who gave a glad little noise, as they approached the camp. Anastasia let go of Vax and hobbled to Percival’s side, rubbing her hands against his shoulders and grooming his hair as the damaged human shook. 

**Author's Note:**

> Vax: Tari the Black Leopard  
> Vex: Trinket the Brown Bear  
> Scanlan: Celeste the Blue-Throated Macaw  
> Grog: Gee the Small blue pitbull  
> Pike: Niji the Garden Sparrow  
> Keyleth: Sylric (unsettled).  
> Percy: Anastasia the Chimp


End file.
